To Die For - Davidson King Page 0,43

you eating chocolate, but I’d bet money that it’s all you’ve eaten today.”

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed at him angrily. “Don’t you dare tell me how I can adult.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Sparkles, I’m not…” He ran his hand over his close-cut hair. “You know I’m not doing that. Okay…” He sat on the couch beside me. “Why’d you really ask Atlas to lift the ban on Dorian?”

I knew that was why he was here, so I didn’t bother acting surprised. “What did Atlas tell you?”

“I’m not going to sit here and believe that was all of it. I have a feeling it was only the tip of the iceberg as to why.”

I rubbed Tank’s head when he whined, not liking the tension in the room. “Dorian isn’t the man you think he is. He’s far worse, and he’s in Haven Hart because of me. When he got banned it made my life worse, so I needed Atlas to help me out.”

“Sparkles.” He took my hand and gently stroked my fingers. “We live in a town filled with some of the worst, most dangerous people out there. Oddly, there’s this balance and understanding between them, and it’s why we don’t have drive-bys and gang wars in the streets. If this guy came here to make ripples, it won’t be received well.”

“Max, none of those big names, or whatever, give a shit about me and my studio. Don’t make me sound more important than I am.” There was a sharpness in my tone, not aimed at Max but at the knowledge that in the grand scheme of things, I didn’t matter.

“First off, you’re wrong. You do matter to a lot of people. Second, if you had no power at all, Dorian wouldn’t have asked you to get the ban lifted. He knew Atlas would do it for you. He couldn’t afford it getting around that he wasn’t allowed into Joker’s Sin, am I right?” I nodded. “So, don’t shit on your worth.”

“Max—”

“Before you go on to say something sarcastic or stupid, you need to hear one more thing. I get that whatever it is you’re not telling me is probably bad in your eyes. Hell, it may even be the worst thing I’ve ever heard. But whatever it is that has held you in chains all these years doesn’t change who you are now. You need to trust someone, Sparkles, and I really wish it would be me you choose.”

“I just—”

“And don’t tell me that I’ll look at you differently or whatever dumb thing you’re thinking either.”

I had to chuckle now because as much as he wanted me to talk, he kept interrupting me. “Are you going to let me speak, or is this some sort of fucked-up joke?”

“Right. Sorry.” He went to sit back, but I gripped his hand.

“Just hold on, okay, don’t let go yet. I know after I’m done here, you may never want to touch me again, so let me just pretend you aren’t repulsed by me yet.”

Max opened his mouth, but something in my expression must’ve stopped him from whatever he was going to say, because he nodded and squeezed my hand a little tighter.

“My life wasn’t one that had a home like yours. I had no siblings, and it was a cramped apartment. My mom worked all the time and, well, you know all about her.” He nodded and I was glad I at least didn’t have to repeat all that again.

“When she couldn’t work, it didn’t stop the bills from coming. She got disability, but it was never enough. I got a job that was under the table, but it still didn’t help. When winter came, our heat got cut off. There wasn’t a plan in place to help families in need at that time, so there were a lot of cold nights. Hungry nights.” When I paused and took a breath, Tank licked my arm in a sign of support.

“One night, there was this older guy. I was sixteen, and he said he’d give me a hundred bucks if I’d blow him. All I thought at that moment was how a hundred bucks would feed us for like a week, so I said yes. I spent the next few months swindling men out of money. Whether blowjobs or pickpocketing. The power was on, we weren’t hungry, and we were warm. My mom was, at this point, in a state facility to help her, and when I would visit her she was dirty, had